Travelling overland to India from the UK in 1974 we began our return journey on 5th April 1974. I remember on that day having a farewell cup of tea at a chai shop and looking out at a scene of misery, pile of rubbish, dogs with sores, children in rags. Exactly a generation later on 5th April 2004, again leaving India for the UK, a friend of my wife's gave us dinner and drove us home in a Mercedes. Hence the conclusion of the song:'I've seen a deal of progress/Since that journey over orient ground'.

A collage of impressions of London which started in Brixton in the 1980s, resumed in Wembley in 2002, swung through Speaker's Corner and Oxford Street in 2005 and finished in Lincoln's Inn Fields in around 2007. All topped off with an awesome Shelley quote from 1812...

I saw a yuppie and a rasta and a fat man up a ladder

On the day I went to town;

And when I paid a call to the discount shopping mall

I saw black and white and brown

I heard a ranting demagogue and saw a mosque and synagogue

A church and temple too;

And then I passed the national and sceptical and rational

Atheistic Soc's HQ

Well I wouldn't have thought it when I was young

But when I saw the courthouse door;

I felt a kind of pride to know inside

All were held in balance by the Law

Down Oxford Street the people pass reflctions glinting from the glass

In pulsing, moving streams;

Behind the eyes a worlds inside with memories and family ties

And hopes and fears and dreams

I saw some Muslim ladies who were laughing oh so carefree

And some girls on mobile phones;

And a mother with her dauhter who much happiness had brought her

And a couple in two tones

That couple walking arm in arm, their love for all to see

Animated by that timeless force that drives humanity...

I saw a yuppie and a rasta and a fat man up a ladder

On the day I went to town;

And when I paid a call to the discount shopping mall

I saw black and white and brown

I heard a ranting demagogue and saw a mosque and synagogue

A church and temple too;

And then I passed the national and sceptical and rational

Atheistic Soc's HQ

And when I got home from my day out I replayed it in my mind

And thought of the unquenchable diversity of humankind

(OK, here it comes, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1812)

"The day is rapidly approaching when the Muslim, the Jew, the Christian, the Hindu and the Atheist

shall live together in one community, equally sharing its benefits, united in the bonds of charity

- no matter what the scrape Its drivers and its riders will be plotting their escape

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna live in turbulent times

Turbulent times, turbulent times

Sometimes you’re gonna grow through turbulent times

SHINING TOWERS

Inspired by a story told by an art therapist working in New York

at the time of the 9/11 attacks.

You know the day it happened,

The day they seized the planes

And brought the shining towers down

In smoke and dust and flames

Well there was a man who worked all week

With victims of that day;

Who tried to soothe their troubled minds

With talk and art and play

Now each weekend he would spend some time

At an urban wildlife park;

To be with a little orphaned bear

They'd put into his charge

Now it usually was mischievous

And naughty in its play;

It would cuff him with its little paws

And rush about all day

But that weekend it was subdued

It didn’t run or jump

Or cuff him with its little paws

Or sit down with a bump

Guess what that bear had felt

The sense of sadness in its friend

It had somehow sensed that day of hate

And tried to make amends

For to our friend’s astonishment

It came and held him tight

To offer him its sympathy

And try to make things right

You could say those acts of hatred

Offended Nature too;

Some spirit of benevolence

Awoke to heal the wound

And it ain’t too sentimental

To say that Love arose

It wakened in that little bear

And in our thoughts for those

Who’d suffered on that dreadful day

When all was upside down

~ It rose to counter hatred

And was felt throughout the Town

LIGHT IN THE CAVERNS

There are places in the natural world

Where sunlight never falls;

In the Ocean's deepest reach

In caves beneath the moors

But those with skill and courage

Who carry torches bright;

Explore these darkened regions

And make them blaze with light

Andthough they soon return to night

They can be understood;

So in a way that light still burns

On tape, on film in books

There were places in the human mix

Beyond the reach of mind;

Where Reason could not penetrate

And the wisest eyes were blind

But those with skill and courage

Who weren't afraid to fight

Explore these darkened regions

And make them blaze with light

In the eggshell of the skull there are no direct lines

Wo knows what is waiting there? - never underrate the human mind.

MORNING LIGHT

It's alright, you're gonna come out

On the other side of the storm;

It's alright, you can get some rest, you can sleep right until

The morning light is shining bright again

I see in your eyes, the confusion you feel

With things flying round in your brain;

But all you've got to doi is centre yourself

And then you'll see clearly again

When the morning light is shining, when the morning light is shining

When the morning light is shining bright again.

Sweet liberation, I love you best of all

- You make me feel like a high-flying man

You make me feel I can hurdle the wall

Of the everyday life, and everything else,

That takes up so much of the time;

You make me feel I can get something done,

Pick myself up of the ground

When the morning light is shining, when the morning light is shining

When the morning light is shining bright again.

ROCKIN' THE RECESSION

Recession in the sense of financial recession and also in the sense of a 'state of being set back'. This one is especially for today's young unemployed and should be thought of as a voice coming out of somewhere at 4.00 in the morning.

You know the sky’s the limit

But your feet are on the ground

You’re gonna blow some fuses

When your time comes around

It’s true, so come on now why so blue?

When your inner light shines on you

You can make it through

You know these chains that bind you

Are only in the mind

There’s a network a community

There for you to find

Oh yeah, so come on now don’t despair

And the times when you care

And share – you’re already there!

You’ve always got the feeling

That the wolves are at the door

One day you’re gonna wake up

And they won’t be there any more

I tell you it’s a matter of frustrated energy

You’re looking for an outlet

For your creativity

You’ve always got the feeling

That the wolves are at the door

One day you’re gonna wake up

And they won’t be there any more

It’s those who have a vision

Find directions for the world

Those who know the future’s

Like a plant in the seed there curled

It’s true, so come on now why so blue?

When your inner light shines on you you can make it through

When your inner light shines on you, you can make it through

When your inner light shines on you, you can boogaloo

CHANGE IN THE WEATHER

'I believe that fortune is the arbiter of half the things we do, leaving the other half or so to be controlled by ourselves. I compare fortune to one of those violent rivers which, when they are enraged, flood the plains, tear down trees and buildings, wash soil from one place and deposit it in another. Yet although such is their nature, it does not follow that when they are flowing quietly one cannot take precautions, constructing dykes and embankments so that when the river is in flood they would keep to one channel or their impetus be less wild and dangerous. So it is with fortune. She shows her potency where there is no well-regulated power to resist her, and her impetus is felt where she knows there are no embankments and dykes built to restrain her.' (Niccolo Macchiavelli, The Prince, 1513-1516).